THE EFFECT OF AIR GAPS ON THE PROPAGATION OF DETONATION IN CHARGES CONSISTING OF STACKED BLOCKS OF CAST TNT

Results are reported for a series of experiments, the objective of which was to study the influence of air gaps on the propagation of detonation between large blocks of slow-cooled cast TNT. The blocks were prepared so as to be identical to blocks used in the construction of stacked 500 ton TNT charges for large-scale air blast experiments. A clear-pour technique was used, resulting in an ordered coarse crystal structure in the blocks. The experimental donar-receptor configurations were chosen to simulate two cases encountered on the interior of the large charges - a two-block configuration in which the detonation front was parallel to the block edge, and a four-block configuration in which the detonation front intersected the common corner between the blocks obliquely (at an angle of 45 degrees). These effects were studied as a function of air gap width and confinement. TRUNCATED